Lots of domestic travelling in the last few weeks, especially the last ten days. Slept in a different town almost every night. I have five days left before my return to Uganda.

Kaija arrived from Japan on Thursday, 18th, and we stayed in Vantaa with Riitta and Timo. The next day, we picked up our Dutch friends Martin and Marieke from the airport and took them to Anu and Ilkka's place in beautiful Lempäälä, where we spent much of the weekend, enjoying sauna, Ilkka's expert cooking, beer & wine, and good company. On Saturday, my brother Timo ran his first marathon in Tre while the rest of us took it easy. Excellent weather (although certainly too warm for ideal running conditions).

Monday morning, I took the 7 a.m. train via Hki and Karjaa to Lappohja (near Hanko), where our grad school met for a two-day summer seminar. It was interesting to have academic sessions on sand dunes by the beach. The first day ended with sauna of course, beer & wine, songs in Finnish, English, Irish, Spanish, French, and Russian - and the inevitable anecdotes and (dirty) jokes. As the youngest of the by then (in)famous Three Markkus, I found it proper to provide my own modest contribution.

On Tuesday, I got a ride to Helsinki, where Kaija and I met some more friends. Wednesday evening we drove to Turku to meet more people and returned to Tampere on Thursday. Yesterday included sauna at Panu and Anni's place and a final night out before I took Kaija to the airport today. Now it's suddenly so very quiet in this little apartment. 20:24